Gary Hunt, the greatest cliff diver

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/feb/16/no-coach-no-agent-no-ego-lionel-messi-of-cliff-diving-gary-hunt

by robaato • 3 years ago

48 26 3 years ago

bleuuuu• 3 years ago

cant wait until he becomes the Jordan of the sport

"He is, unquestionably, the greatest cliff diver of all time, “the Michael Jordan, the Muhammad Ali, the Tiger Woods” of the sport, as Steven LoBue, an American diver who had the misfortune of competing against Hunt for many years, put it in 2021."

ultrasounder• 3 years ago

He has already completed cliff diving. Messi style. But, If he wants to start a cliff diving shorts brand empire sure. Then “Air Hunt it is.

867-5309• 3 years ago

the arab nation or the British model?

zwirbl• 3 years ago

Messi has no trainer and no ego. Good one

kevinali12• 3 years ago

Messi can be compared to billions of ppl are the world who play or dabble in football. This dude can be compared to what - a couple thousand?

__derek__2• 3 years ago

The Messi comparison threw me, too. Maybe Alex Honnold would be a better comparison, or Ueli Steck for the European audience.

swores• 3 years ago

As a European (a Brit) I haven't personally heard of either of those two people. Whereas I do know Messi, and I assume by comparing to him they mean "someone with rare skill for doing what they do better than anyone else (probably while making it look easier than it is)".

Anecdote of 1 of course... but I'd also guess that I'm not an outlier, and Messi is much better known than your two suggestions in pretty much any country.

dang3• 3 years ago

Ok you guys, I've taken the Messi bit out of the title above. Please focus on something more interesting now.

aliqot2• 3 years ago

So we're just editorializing titles now? The title of the article is "No coach, no agent, no ego: the incredible story of the ‘Lionel Messi of cliff diving’"

Rules are rules. Mark it zero.

dang3• 3 years ago

I was going by the book there. I think you may have misunderstood the rule, which reads:

"Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

That is, we specifically don't use the original title when it is misleading or linkbait, as the original title in this case was.

When we do edit a title, we try to use representative language from the article itself wherever possible—e.g. a subtitle, a phrase from the text, or something else where the article says neutrally what it is actually about. That's what I did in this case; the language came from the subheading.

kevinali12• 3 years ago

The Messi comment wasn't trying to be snarky. Was trying to foster an actual conversation about what it means to be great and how does context matter. Sorry if it came across as insulting or uninteresting- that was not my intention.

dang3• 3 years ago

No worries! There were a bunch of them and they were taking the thread off-topic and/or into shallower waters, as such things do.

cobertos3• 3 years ago

Interesting that Red Bull didn't respond to his request for sponsorship. He said himself that he doesn't fit the mold (no self promotion, plays piano, no other extreme sports), but that seems like it might be a great strength, to attract a different audience? An odd introvert looked up to by other odd introverts?

Or maybe everything about marketing/advertising will always lean towards catering to extroverts/neurotypical people.

(Also unrelated, I wonder if there is a link between less anxiety and getting into an "instinctual" state. Like how he does juggling before a dive)

aliqot2• 3 years ago

Somewhat related, Monster bev has a 'no nerds' policy. Just tongue in cheek I emailed them about sponsorship for an OSS project that was practically built by Monster Ultra Fiesta and the email response spelled it out in no uncertain terms, no nerds.

abfan1127• 3 years ago

this seems like a business opportunity...

teruakohatu• 3 years ago

Can you quote the email specifically?

dokem• 3 years ago

I think the extreme part is the height. And the impression I get is that we already maxed out the height in the 80s because you can only jump from so high. So the sport is kind of dead. I haven't looked into it at all because, like most people, i just don't find it very interesting.

imglorp• 3 years ago

The scores are computed as degree of difficulty x judge's rating. So the higher up, the more moves can be fit into a ~3s fall. So there's a lot of zero sum thinking there: do you do one medium-hard thing very well, one hard thing mediocre, or three things strung together? That's a little of the appeal for me.

Also, I did a little 10m which is just a taste of this.

hummus_bae• 3 years ago

but that seems like it might be a great strength, to attract a different audience?

No. It's a liability. Brands are about focusing on niche markets with common interests.

Or maybe everything about marketing/advertising will always lean towards catering to extroverts/neurotypical people.

No. It's about being able to sell to them and promote to them. Being able to promote what you're selling is a prerequisite to being able to sell it.

cobertos3• 3 years ago

No. It's a liability. Brands are about focusing on niche markets with common interests.

A fair assessment.

No. It's about being able to sell to them and promote to them. Being able to promote what you're selling is a prerequisite to being able to sell it.

I'm not sure what your "no" is disagreeing with here. Is it that marketing will not have a lean because they will always choose to market toward their audience?

I would disagree with that. Marketing/advertisers think in generalizations. The formal processes of audience description and creating example personas are fully based on those generalizations. These methods are extremely helpful, I've done them before myself, and they produce useful methodology and next steps.

But these generalizations are built on popular culture, which is dictated by societal normalcy, past media (generational upbringing), etc. Those generalizations always contain normalcy/socially acceptable leanings, which means marketing as structured currently would need to go out of its way to combat this leaning. Which they don't, no one cares, the workers complete the work, get paid, and go home.

rsyring• 3 years ago

Gary Hunt was 24, skinny and pale. He was still so inexperienced from such heights that he wore two pairs of Speedos for extra protection.

So, it's the second pair of speedos that ups the protection? Is one pair that much better than two pair when hitting the water at 50 MPH?

Cerium• 3 years ago

I suspect it is for increased ingress protection.

Gary Hunt, the greatest cliff diver

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